To Whom it May Concern
by PeaceLoveParvati
Summary: The letter that could change the world.


To whom it may concern,

I remember how it all started. Of course, if you're reading this, it means I never got to see the end. That's okay. I made my peace with dying to protect the ones I love a long time ago. I _didn't_ make my peace with being forgotten. So if you've found this letter (or if you're Danny, and reading it even though I told you not to and gave you one of your very own), then you get to read all about my life and what led to my eventual death. And maybe you get to carry on the fight and live to see the end of it. Spoiler alert: We are _going_ to win, if I have to come back from the dead and kick ass again.

It started with my father. He's a big name, you know. The Bishop name gets recognized when I have to drop it to get what I need sometimes. He's a big business guy, and I doubt he even remembers that he has two daughters most of the time. My mother died when I was young. Susan and I took care of each other while we were growing up, but I haven't seen her since I picked up Hawkeye's bow and became a hero. It wasn't safe. My one regret, should I die, would be that I never got to share this with her. She never got to know that I did something with my life. That I became what I always wanted to be, and made a difference in the world.

Being ignored meant that I spent most of my time by myself. Living in New York, being a pretty teenage girl, walking through the park alone wasn't a good idea. Too bad nobody told me that. I'd been picking up my bridesmaid dress for my sister's wedding, walking back to the house on my own, when it happened. The man was drunk. It's no excuse. I got my revenge later, though I never told anybody. Huh, maybe that's what this letter is really for, subconsciously. To let people know what I've done, to share my darkest secrets.

Anyways, it was hard moving on from that, nearly impossible. I'd felt so weak, like I couldn't take care of myself anymore. I signed up for self-defense classes, and spent my alone time teaching myself how to use weapons, how to fire a gun and a bow. I got a private archery instructor. I never told Clint this, but I used to completely idolize him, not Black Widow. Natasha was cool, but she'd been trained as an assassin from the beginning. Clint was in the circus, and he made himself a hero in the end. Clint is already gone now, dead for a full year. I feel that loss every day. He was my... not my father, but more than my mentor. At one time, when we first met, I loved him with everything I had. A lot changed.

I got good in just a couple of months. By the time my sister's wedding came around, I was mostly back to myself, more confident in my ability to take care of myself and protect others. Susan was so beautiful. That's the only wedding detail I can remember, other than the attack. Right in the middle of the vows, the whole ceiling blew up. That was the first time I met the Young Avengers, my former team. I saved their asses, because they had no idea what they were doing. It was pathetic. I ended up in the hospital, because saving people tends to cause injuries, and I made my first friend other than my sister: Cassie Lang.

See, Cassie was the first person to actually treat me like a normal person, and not like a stuck-up heiress or a fragile flower. She explained all about her father (Ant Man, in case you were wondering), and about the team that I saved. Together, we tracked them down at the old Avengers Mansion (which was in ruins, and totally not good for living in- much like Clint's apartment, actually. I'm seeing a pattern here). I don't think they would have invited us onto the team, really, if we had given them any choice. We built that team up from the ground.

Actually, that's where I found the bow that I use today: Hawkeye's bow. It was buried in what I assume was a weapon's vault, and I dug it out by accident. Later, when I finally met him, he told me to keep it. And when he officially came back from the dead (not that he was ever really dead- long story), he became my mentor. I left the Young Avengers when he took me under his wing, but I still help(ed) when they asked. They were my family before Clint was, and the only person I could possibly care more about was Susan. Susan, who I have not spoken to since her wedding.

Two full years of training with Clint and constantly helping him out of trouble, and I was as good as I was going to get. And I couldn't sit still anymore. So I took the dog (another long story) and left. We won't talk about my attempt to be a solo hero in LA, because that was embarrassing. Long story short, Clint tracked me down six months in and dragged my ass back, along with Lucky (the dog), and he hasn't let me leave since. Not that I would. Like I said, embarrassing.

But the real story starts when SHIELD recruited me. Nick Fury himself showed up to talk to me. Okay, so maybe he was there for Clint and I just happened to be the only one in the apartment at the time. Still, that's how I joined SHIELD. They took me on as a junior agent, and I started my training with a small group of other people, mostly teenagers like me. I was nineteen, but because I'd spent so much time pretending to be a hero (this is the point Clint or Cassie would jump in and yell at me for saying 'pretending', but that's what it felt like. I'd never done anything _important_ , never saved the world or made a real impact. And they always argued that saving any life was an impact, but they were wrong. My impact comes later), I was stuck training with the sixteen to eighteen category. There wasn't anyone my age, and there wasn't anyone worth talking to. They were all boring, not risk-takers, and definitely not SHIELD material. I think every one of them ended up behind a desk.

I spent my time outside of SHIELD with Clint, or sometimes on my own, still doing the hero thing. I kept the Russian guys away from Clint as much as possible, collected rent for him when he forgot to, basically lived with him and kept him alive... and trained to be the best I could be. I guess Fury took notice of my time and effort.

There was a team that was supposed to be secret, except Clint could access all the files and he can't keep a secret for shit. Couldn't. God, it's hard to get tenses right. I keep forgetting he's not going to walk in here and take the laptop away from me to google a pizza place he hasn't been banned from. It was my life for so long that I can't believe I've lost it. Not really.

Anyways, the team. This guy, Spiderman, was supposedly this great new superhero who was rising in fame and success. Fury put together a team of other supers, and made Peter Parker, aka Spiderman, the leader to teach him responsibility or something. Except then he seemed to realize what a disaster that was going to turn out to be, so he was looking in his ranks to find someone their age to keep them under control when Parker failed. I guess Clint found out all about it, and volunteered me. I don't know if I was getting on his nerves or what, but joining the team officially gave me no time to spend with Clint. I only saw him in passing a few times in Coulson's office or around SHIELD, until they needed a cover story for me when the team kept asking (much later, after several missions failed from lack of team bonding), and Fury named him my father for the foreseeable future. We had a full backstory and everything. It was the first time I actually felt complete. I had a family, and a team. It was all I ever wanted.

Let's jump back to meeting the team, because that was an important moment in all of this. It might be the actual moment the whole thing started. See, there's this theory out there that we've each got one person meant for us, one person to love who will love you back completely, like there's nobody else on Earth. I think it's a load of shit, but Danny really believes in it. He told me after... well, after other important things, that he knew that moment we met. I don't believe him, but it's a nice sentiment.

The conference room was a blank as all the others. I was there first as a precaution, because the team was unpredictably violent sometimes according to Fury. (This is actually true. Even after we became a real team and had each others' backs, there were times that we _all_ reacted violently if surprised.) They all came in together, talking.

"I don't know why Fury wants us here, for the last time! He just said we all need to be here, on time for once, because it's an important meeting that we'd regret missing," Parker was saying as the door opened.

"I think he's getting you back for the spiders in his coffee," Sam snapped, frowning. None of them even noticed me sitting there. I knew Fury wasn't going to show up. He was leaving this entirely up to me, a first test to see if I could handle the job. My hand was firmly on my bow, ready in an instant to fire off a warning shot or defend myself. I wasn't stupid. I needn't have worried.

"Whatever it is, he's not here yet. Are you sure you got the time right, Parker?" Luke asked, glancing to the chair Fury normally occupied. Ah, my opening.

"He's got the right time, just the wrong person to be looking for. Fury isn't coming. It's just me," I'd said, smiling. I wanted them to think that I wasn't a threat. That I was weak, and therefore, someone they could ignore. I needed to prove them wrong immediately to gain respect and take my place. Coulson had given me that little piece of advice beforehand. Apparently, it's what Parker did wrong on his first day. He was too cocky.

"And you are?" Ava asked, not unkindly. They were all staring at me now, mostly impatient.

"My name is Kate, and I'm your new teammate," I replied.

"Right, sure," Sam snorted. "And what exactly is your ability?"

"I'm not like you. I'm just normal. But you'll find that I can hold my own in a fight. To be honest with you, I don't fully understand what Fury's plan is, putting me on this team. I'm going with it until I can figure it out and decide if I want any part of it," I admitted, deciding on the truth.

"Then why are you wasting our time?" Sam asked. "A normal person isn't going to be able to keep up with us. You'd be dead in a week, maybe less. Am I right, guys?" There was a lot of nodding. It was my moment to show them just what I could do, and I knew that Sam was as good a target as any.

In less than ten second, both Sam's arms were pinned the wall behind him. I'd also managed to snag Parker's mask, taking it clean off of his head with a well-aimed arrow. My bow was back at my side and out of sight before any of them could react. I hadn't even bothered to stand up.

"Did I mention that I've been trained to replace Hawkeye, should the need come up?" I asked calmly, examining the fingernails on my left hand. There was no reply. They were all just staring at me again.

"Somebody get these things off!" Sam snapped after roughly a minute of recovery and processing. I had to try really hard not to laugh at him.

"You are very impressive," Danny stated, coming to sit across from me while Luke pulled the arrows out of the wall to release Sam and Parker retrieved his mask. Ava sat next to him, still studying me.

"Who is training you?" she asked.

"Hawkeye himself, who else? I've been training for years now. I'm ready to be out in the field, but this is the first time Fury has been willing to use me. That's why I'm fairly certain he has ulterior motives," I replied. Of course, thanks to Clint, I already knew what those motives were.

"Well, welcome to the team," Danny told me, offering a hand and smiling.

Unfortunately, no matter how well the meeting went, it still triggered the series of events that led to the end of the world as we knew it. Because as we were in that conference room, Clint was meeting with the Avengers and telling them all about what was going on inside of SHIELD. It was the last straw for Stark, who started building a machine that could end the world's problems and eliminate the need for SHIELD itself. The machine that would be the cause of his death, as well as most of the rest of the world. The probable cause of my own death. Ultron.

I was thrown into life with the team. They were living at Parker's aunt's house, and I was sent to live with them until SHIELD could find (build) a better place for us all. I wasn't allowed to stay with Clint anymore, whether he was meant to be my father or not. I got along with the individual members of the team differently. I watched Sam and Peter start a relationship. I watched Luke and Ava dance around each other until Ava found a boyfriend in the school they were forced to attend (I'd refused) and Luke found a boyfriend in SHIELD. Ava became my new best friend, since I didn't have a way to contact Cassie anymore, and I slowly developed my own relationship with Danny.

That started before I even realized I was falling for him. I think Danny is more in-tune with his emotions than a normal person, because he has to know his in order to control his iron fists. There isn't a moment I've doubted his feelings for me, because I know he isn't capable of lying to himself. Staying with me if he didn't love me would be the biggest lie he could tell himself. But I didn't realize my own emotions for myself until he asked me out and Ava knocked some sense into me.

It was the day we were moving into the place they'd designed for us. He was helping me carry my boxes into my new room when I think it just slipped out.

"When we've finished unpacking, would you like to get something to eat with me?" he asked, laying a box down on my new desk. I didn't realize he was asking me on a date.

"Yeah, sure. We can see if the others want to join us, too," I'd said, grinning. I didn't even notice the way his face dropped when he nodded and left the room. I didn't know until that night, when I was sparring with Ava.

"You hurt him," she stated, knocking me onto my back and laying her foot lightly over my throat.

"Who?" I asked, confused and trying to knock her away from me. I never could make her move when she didn't want to.

"Danny. I know you were probably just trying to let him down gently, but I've never seen him show an interest in _anyone_ else, and you just blew him off without thinking about it," she replied, letting me up and dropping into a stance for another round.

"I don't know what you're talking about. When did he do anything that would require me letting him down gently? And why would I do that anyways? Why are you assuming I wouldn't go out with him?" I asked, raising an eyebrow and crossing my arms. I wasn't going to fight her until we finished the conversation. She stood up straight, frowning at me.

"He asked you out this morning and you invited the entire team instead of just telling him no," she reminded me. That's when it clicked for me. All the times he and I flirted, all the times I'd caught him staring at me, the random studying and meditation 'dates'... it all made sense. "You really didn't know how he feels about you?"

"I... no," I said quietly, grabbing a towel to wipe my sweat off.

"How do you feel about him?" she asked, curious.

And that was the question, wasn't it? I'd never even thought about a relationship. My last one had been while I was with the Young Avengers, and the last person I'd had _feelings_ for was Clint... but that had all changed. I could actually see a future with Danny. Somehow, I'd fallen for him and not even noticed. My face must have given me away, because Ava just smiled and walked away, leaving me to figure things out for myself.

The very next day, I found Danny in his room and asked _him_ out for something to eat. His whole face lit up, and we still to this day tell that story to anyone who sits still long enough to hear it. Clint heard it six times before... well, you know.

As of right now, as I write this, he and I have been together for three years. That's how long we've managed to survive. Because six months after our first date, Tony Stark succeeded in building Ultron. And three weeks after that, something went wrong. The first death was Nick Fury. Shocking, right? Stark had built Ultron to eliminate SHIELD, and the most logical way to do that was to remove the director. When that didn't work, every agent became a target. Ultron worked his way into everything electronic, and he multiplied. He was everywhere, taking over everything. The people who cooperated were made slaves to the robots. The ones who weren't were killed. Tony Stark and Hank Pym, Ultron's creators, were killed very shortly after Fury. They'd tried to shut him down, but Ultron had grown too intelligent, and he'd been waiting for them.

The rest of us, all of us rebels who are left, have a copy of the program that can shut him down, and he knows it. He's been taking us out one by one, but he has to find us first. I haven't told anyone about my plan. Tomorrow, I'm attacking. Ava, Sam, and I are all going. Sam and I are the distraction, staying alive for as long as possible, while Ava gets in a good position and hopefully takes him out. It's a suicide mission, we know. But if enough of us do it, at enough locations, at the same time... one of us could have a shot. And that's the plan. All over the world, people are going to try.

I didn't tell Danny. I gave him his letter a while ago, and he'll be getting this one to keep safe when I've signed it. I've kept him safe for so long, in ways he doesn't even know. Ways he will never know. The things I've done... maybe it's best if nobody knows the full story.

So if you're reading this now, Danny, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you where I was going. I'm sorry that we failed. I'm sorry if Ava comes back alone. I _never_ meant to leave you alone in this world. My only hope, if you are alone now, is that we've managed to make it a better world. A world worth living in. Because I know that if you died and Ultron survived, if our places were reversed, I wouldn't survive it. I'd go out for revenge, I'd be stupid... but I know you. You won't do that. If we don't succeed, I _know_ that you will. And I love you for that.

And if you're not Danny, and Ultron is still out there... I'm equally sorry to you. I'm enclosing a copy of the program in case you don't have one. I hope you won't need to even try to use it. But hey, if you're reading this, then you know that there is a way to survive for at least three years. There's a way to live even with society being run by robots, and humans being slaughtered or kept as slaves. And there's a resistance. There are rebels out there fighting to get things back to the way they were, before Stark killed us all. Live for that. Find a way.

I guess these are my last words, huh? Guess I better make them good. I think I said this to Clint once, but it's relevant now. I did something with my life. I made a difference. I have no powers and not nearly enough training, but I've been doing this anyways. Being a superhero is amazing. Everyone should try it. I made a difference. You can too.

Sincerely yours (even in death),

Kate Bishop


End file.
